Now, the reputation of this castle precedes itself, it belongs to a wizard called Howl, whose dastardly deeds of consuming young women's hearts is legendary. Once she rectifies this she encounters a magnificent sight, a floating castle. She journeys for a time, encountering first a scarecrow that is no longer standing up. When Sophie realizes just how extreme the change is she decides to leave Market Chipping.

The witch casts a spell on her that makes her age drastically from a girl of seventeen to a woman in her later years.

At first the Witch arrives on the pretense that she is hat shopping with her assistant, Gaston, but it quickly becomes obvious that Sophie is going to be compromised for her indifferent attitude towards the Witch. With these thoughts in her mind Sophie heads off to the hat shop where she encounters a woman who changes her life, the Witch of the Waste, a powerful enchantress whose reputation is legendary. It is Lettie who tells Sophie she must stand up to Fanny by demanding a wage for her efforts at the hat shop, that she is worth more. Evidently the girls did not enjoy their assigned positions and switched with each other after administering a magical glamour that altered their appearances. When she meets with Lettie she is surprised to discover that Lettie is not really Lettie, but in fact she is Martha under an enchantment to look like Lettie. One day in Market Square Sophie meets an elegant young man with blond hair who compliments her as she runs off to see Lettie. Soon all the businesses are booming, what with Sophie's ingenuity and Lettie's good looks the custom just explodes.

While Sophie learns the business of making and selling hats Sophie's younger sister Lettie (16) and half sister Martha (14 or 15?) go off to apprentice at Cesari's bakery and a watchmaker's named Mrs. Sophie's family owns a hat shop, and between her stepmother Fanny and her Father Sophie has been named the heir apparent. In the land of Ingary, in a small town called Market Chipping, lives a 17 year old young woman named Sophie.

Howls moving castle length